It is commonly recognized that persons who have been traumatically injured or are afflicted by disease or a disorder have physical injuries and/or gross symptoms which are typically accompanied by the release of potentially infectious blood and other body fluids which may harbor bacteria, viruses, or other hazardous and toxic agents. The variety of potentially hazardous body fluids and liquid wastes includes not only infectious blood, lymph fluid, sputum, and the other body fluids comprising or protecting the major tissues and organs internally; but also urine, excrement, fouled water, ambient hazardous chemicals and toxic agents, mud and other soil mixtures, as well as other major parts of the environment in which the individual works or lives. These potentially hazardous fluids and wastes may then contaminate, injure, or infect any and all persons coming into contact with these fluids including the emergency medical personnel; orderlies, nurse's aides, and service personnel; other patients and persons in the general environment; and the pathologists and attendants examining the body tissue or performing the autopsy. This is especially the case when a lethal and possibly contagious agent or disease was the true cause of death.
It has now been well recognized that current procedures for removing potentially hazardous body fluids and liquid wastes released by a living or dead person during medical treatment or via autopsy are often inadequate, inefficient, or actually hazardous. Often, body fluid and liquid waste is absorbed only via the use of bulky sheets or drapes with minimal absorptive capacity; such articles can not usually absorb the quantity of fluid released and typically allow the unabsorbed fluid and other liquid waste to drip freely onto the surrounding environment and supporting personnel. This is particularly the case when the subject is moved from place to place.
A repetitious and continuing problem with current procedures and practices is the unintended, accidental contact with potentially hazardous fluids and wastes by the unknowing and/or uninformed person. Even when "universal precautions" procedures dictate the use of a central receptacle for the deposit of potentially dangerous materials and items, the difficulty remains in that each person using the central receptable comes into inadvertent and unknowing contact with the hazardous fluids and wastes previously deposited by others. Every time the central receptable is opened, each person in turn can become accidently exposed to the air particulates released by the previously deposited fluids and wastes already present. Such exposure occurs regularly because none of these deposited materials have been individually isolated or contained in advance of their being deposited into the central receptacle. In common practice, the potentially hazardous fluids and wastes often intermix and commingle within the confines of the central receptacle, thereby often actually increasing the risk of accidental contamination for the next person to open the receptacle to make a deposit.
In many instances, also, when unfortunately the subject has died of his injuries or disease, it is then desirable to protect the living from the fluids released by the corpse of the subject. Nevertheless, particularly in autopsy and embalming procedures, the potentially hazardous body fluids and liquid waste is in direct contact with personnel and is often allowed to drain directly into septic systems. These conventionally known procedures frequently lead to contamination of the skin, clothing, and person of the attending personnel; and all too often to contamination of the equipment, furniture, and the general surrounding environment where the corpse is held. In such instances, it is extremely important to employ effective precautions to protect the physicians during autopsy and the embalming personnel, especially when a lethal and possibly contagious disease was the cause of death of the subject.
The severity of this problem is best illustrated and understood by following the normal course of events which typically occur after a call for an ambulance or emergency medical personnel has been initiated to a particular site. A standard part of the equipment that ambulance and emergency medical personnel bring to the wounded or infected person is a stretcher - destined for aiding and supporting the injured or sick person from the original site where found to an emergency room or trauma center. The conventional stretcher is an upholstered or cushioned bed supported on a frame and has wheeled collapsible legs which aid in the moving of the body of the person after placement on the stretcher. All too often the stretcher itself is covered merely with a thin fibrous sheets and/or blankets upon which the injured or infected person is placed.
After the patient is placed on the stretcher, the medical attendants typically roll up the side of the sheet and blanket to prevent the body fluids (including blood and human waste) from dripping or actually flowing onto their person or from splattering the general environment surrounding the place where the patient has been found. Note that the blood and other fluid typically dripping from the bedding is due in part to the weight of the patient. When the patient is physically picked up for transfer, the weight of the person causes the sheets to form a hammock thereby forming a valley into which fluids run. Also, the weight of the patient actually squeezes fluid out of the wetted bedding during handling and transfer.
As an aid, absorbent padding is in common use by emergency personnel and typically appears in the form of wedges, bolts, sponges, or other shapes of cloth placed along the perimeter or edges of the stretcher to help prevent the dripping of the potentially hazardous fluids and to minimize the contamination of the local geographical area. Many of these aids incorporate fluid-absorbing materials, often in powdered or particulate form. Unfortunately, such conventionally used aids have major deficiencies. Frequently they absorb only limited amounts of fluids, typically only a maximum of 10 fold its weight in water or other fluids. Moreover, many of these absorbent aids are not readily fixed in place within a fibrous weave or cloth; consequently, when wet, these materials tend to clump and displace in volume and position. Equally important, even the recently introduced "gel blocks" become far less absorbent when the top of the material becomes saturated thus causing the product to ooze and dispel fluid when saturated, particularly under pressure circumstances. In addition, these gel block products typically wick fluid across their top surfaces, and thus may actually increase the risk of potential contamination of the entire fluid absorbing material and the medical personnel holding them in position. Thus, the present emergency and ambulatory practices do not provide effective, portable materials or apparatus by which to protect attending personnel from the fluids released by the injured (or perhaps even dying person) while lying on the stretcher during initial examination at the site of injury or discovery, or during transport to the hospital emergency room or trauma center.
Another critical event typically occurring upon entering the receiving room of the hospital or trauma center is a physical transfer by medical personnel of the patient from the portable stretcher bed to a fixed examination table. Once the injured or diseased person has been placed upon a hospital examination table, he then may be isolated as required or necessary using known isolation tents or other isolation apparatus. The bedding, however, upon which the patient lies then accompanies him during the subsequent transfers to other tables, gurneys, and other stretchers or litters to isolation wards, surgical operating rooms, post-surgery recovery rooms, etc.; this bedding remains a serious risk to medical personnel because of the continuing release of potentially infective blood and other body fluids during the emergency treatment process.
In addition, following an emergency treatment procedure where a certain amount of urgency and disciplined chaos are frequently present, a variety of sharp-edged articles such as scalpels, syringe needles, and the like may accidently become lost or intermingled in the bedding. After the patient has been physically moved onto a different stretcher (as in the emergency room), someone else comes to clean up the debris left in the aftermath. This person, while in the act of gathering up the sheets and bedding, frequently is punctured by a hidden sharp-edged instrument inadvertently left in the sheets or bedding; and thus can become accidentally infected by the infectious blood, fluids, and other wastes on the instrument and in the surrounding bedding.
The sequence of events taken to its undesirable but logical conclusion ends in the autopsy room for the pathological workup and report. Unfortunately, there is a major risk of infection for autopsy personnel which can occur both during the performance of the autopsy and during the subsequent cleaning-up process. Blood spills, pieces of tissue, and other fluid and liquid matter associated or obtained via the autopsy can soil personnel clothing, surrounding equipment, tables, and even the floors within the autopsy room--hereby creating major risks of contamination and infection to involved personnel.
It is abundantly clear, therefore, that the risk of potential contamination, infection, and other direct injury remains a real and relatively constant threat and danger to medical personnel and other persons coming into contact with the hazardous fluids and wastes from either the living injured or diseased person, or the subsequent corpse. It is now also recognized that the broad variety of known innovations, customary protective measures, and conventional tangible means for protecting personnel are in the main limited to specific use circumstances of relatively short duration and effectiveness; and moreover, are not themselves useful or convenient for prolonged use or effect.
A summary review of the presently available protective devices and absorbent articles reveals the inherent limitations and general unsuitability of these conventionally known devices and articles to protect the individual person from the fluids and wastes released by persons afflicted with injury or disease. For example, a variety of fluid-absorbent fabrics and fibers are known which are conventionally used both as wound dressings and as protective garments in the operating room. These are described by: British Patent No. 2,175,210; French Patent No. 2,565,110; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,748,065; 4,637,820; and 3,521,624.
Despite these fabrics and fibers, there remains a demonstrable and long standing need for an absorbent textile article or gauze-like commodity which has the capability of being self-enveloping, self-containing, and safely disposable on demand; and prevents the dripping and flow of fluids such that the attending medical personnel and the surrounding environment remain substantially free from and protected from the effects of potentially hazardous body fluids and liquid wastes released by the injured, diseased, or deceased person being attended. Insofar as is presently known, there is no single article or commodity which is able to be utilized not only at the first instance of finding, discovering, or treating an injured or diseased person; but also is able to be emplloyed in a variety of formats through the subsequent events up to and including autopsy and funeral disposition.